Lyocell fibers are typically used in textiles or filter media. See, for example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0177909, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,872,311, and No. 2003/0168401, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,835,311, both to Koslow, as well as U.S. Pat. No. 6,511,746 to Collier et al. On the other hand, high efficiency wipers for cleaning glass and other substrates are typically made from thermoplastic fibers.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,890,649 to Hobbs et al. (3M) discloses polyester microfibers for use in a wiper product. According to the '649 patent, the microfibers have an average effective diameter less than 20 microns and, generally, from 0.01 microns to 10 microns. See column 2, lines 38 to 40. These microfibers are prepared by fibrillating a film surface and then harvesting the fibers.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,849,329 to Perez et al. discloses microfibers for use in cleaning wipes. These fibers are similar to those described in the '649 patent discussed above. U.S. Pat. No. 6,645,618 also to Hobbs et al. also discloses microfibers in fibrous mats such as those used for removal of oil from water or their use as wipers.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0148264 (application Ser. No. 10/748,648) of Varona et al. discloses a wiper with a bimodal pore size distribution. The wiper is made from melt blown fibers as well as coarser fibers and papermaking fibers. See page 2, paragraph 16.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0203306 (application Ser. No. 10/833,229) of Grate et al. discloses a flexible wipe including a non-woven layer and at least one adhered nanofiber layer. The nanofiber layer is illustrated in numerous photographs. It is noted on page 1, paragraph [0009], that the microfibers have a fiber diameter of from about 0.05 microns to about 2 microns. In this publication, the nanofiber webs were evaluated for cleaning automotive dashboards, automotive windows, and so forth. For example, see page 8, paragraphs [0055] and [0056].
U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,201 to Julemont discloses a non-woven wiper incorporating melt-blown fiber. U.S. Pat. No. 4,906,513 to Kebbell et al. also discloses a wiper having melt-blown fiber. Here, polypropylene microfibers are used and the wipers are reported to provide streak-free wiping properties. This patent is of general interest as is U.S. Pat. No. 4,436,780 to Hotchkiss et al., which discloses a wiper having a layer of melt-blown polypropylene fibers and, on either side, a spun bonded polypropylene filament layer. U.S. Pat. No. 4,426,417 to Meitner et al. also discloses a non-woven wiper having a matrix of non-woven fibers including a microfiber and a staple fiber. U.S. Pat. No. 4,307,143 to Meitner discloses a low cost wiper for industrial applications, which includes thermoplastic, melt-blown fibers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,100,324 to Anderson et al. discloses a non-woven fabric useful as a wiper, which incorporates wood pulp fibers.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0141881 (application Ser. No. 11/361,875), now U.S. Pat. No. 7,691,760, of Bergsten et al., discloses a wipe with melt-blown fibers. This publication also describes a drag test at pages 7 and 9. Note, for example, page 7, paragraph [0059]. According to the test results on page 9, microfiber increases the drag of the wipe on a surface.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0200991 (application Ser. No. 10/135,903) of Keck et al. discloses a dual texture absorbent web. Note pages 12 and 13 that describe cleaning tests and a Gardner wet abrasion scrub test.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,573,204 to Philipp et al. discloses a cleaning cloth having a non-woven structure made from micro staple fibers of at least two different polymers and secondary staple fibers bound into the micro staple fibers. The split fiber is reported to have a titer of 0.17 to 3.0 dtex prior to being split. See column 2, lines 7 through 9. Note also, U.S. Pat. No. 6,624,100 to Pike, which discloses splittable fiber for use in microfiber webs.
While there have been advances in the art as to high efficiency wipers, existing products tend to be relatively difficult and expensive to produce, and are not readily re-pulped or recycled. Wipers of this invention are economically produced on conventional equipment, such as a conventional wet press (CWP) papermachine and may be re-pulped and recycled with other paper products. Moreover, the wipers of the invention are capable of removing micro-particles and substantially all of the residue from a surface, reducing the need for biocides and cleaning solutions in typical cleaning or sanitizing operations.